French grain sowing lagging far behind after rains

French grain sowings further slowed last week and are now running well behind last year, farm office FranceAgriMer said on Friday, confirming that heavy rainfall in the past weeks had delayed fieldwork in the European Union’s largest grain grower.

Farmers had sown 67% of the expected soft wheat area for next year’s harvest by Nov. 6, up from 61% last week, it said. That compared to sowing progress of 91% by the same stage in 2022 and a five-year average of 83%. Soft wheat sowing had progressed by 8 percentage points in the previous week.

Soft wheat sowings usually advance by about 20% per week in France.

Nearly uninterrupted wet weather over the past weeks has brought grain sowing to a virtual standstill in many parts of France, which is likely to lead to a drop in yields, technical institute Arvalis said this week.

For winter barley, sowings had reached 81% by Monday, up from 76% a week earlier. They were nearly over at 96% by the same time last year. Durum plantings were also running well behind, at 15% compared to 46% in 2022 and only up from 11% a week before.

Grain maize harvesting had reached 95% of the area cut by Monday, compared to 90% a week earlier. They were done by the same time last year but harvesting was still running ahead of a five-year average of 91%.

Tags: sowing, durum, soft wheat, winter barley, grain maize, grain, France, rainfall, yields